Innocence
by Teisha Youngblood
Summary: X-23 discovers something unforgivable about herself, and her father has betrayed her in the worst way possible. Can her father's greatest enemy help her overcome her demons and show her the beauty of her own soul and the powerful effects of love?
1. A Captive Heart

**Innocence**_ Laura K. and Victor C._ Rated M

I do _**not **_own the X-Men, X-23, Sabretooth or any other Marvel characters presented in this story. They are all property of Marvel Comics Inc. its corporations and affiliates. X-23 is property of Craig Kyle.

**Chapter 1: Captive Hearts**

I am X-23. I am also Laura Kinney. I am the twenty-third embryo created by the Facility in a project designed to clone the mutant Weapon X. I am legally the daughter of Deborah Kinney and James Howlett a.k.a Logan a.k.a Wolverine a.k.a Weapon X. At thirteen I killed my creators, including my own mother, Dr. Sarah Kinney. I am trained in the skills necessary to track and kill any target anywhere at any time. I am a student at Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning. I am a member of the mutant militia, X-Force. I am a girl trying to protect a world that fears and hates me. I am a weapon. I am a child. I am a daughter. I am a monster.

To hear all these things about myself, I once assumed that I had no good in me. I was evil through and through. However, living under the tutelage of my aunt, who is also the woman who is listed legally on my birth certificate as my mother, and my genetic provider and adopted father, I have learned that I do have good in my soul. I have always known I possessed bad. I am a living paradox, a woman struggling to find the balance between the human and the animal in her soul. My aunt taught me to believe all people were like that, some just refused to acknowledge the struggle.

Today I believe she is wrong. Today I have met a man that I believe has no good in him anywhere. I know that many of his targets had no attachment to him, emotional or physical but he killed them anyway, without provocation and without orders. He was part of the Weapon X program with my father Wolverine, but he was too unstable to be considered a weapon or a soldier. Like Wolverine and me, he is good at killing people. Unlike us, he _enjoys_ killing people.

Today I have met Victor Creed a.k.a Sabretooth. Today I meet the man that proves that no God exists, for if He did, he would not make such a creation.

We rescued him from one of Bastion's mutant camps where he was experimented on. We brought him back to our headquarters in the Rocky Mountains where Josh Foley a.k.a Elixir has been attempting to heal him, as his own healing factor has been pushed beyond what it can normally stand. Elixir is only allowed near him because I am with him, and Wolverine believes I can restrain Sabretooth. I hope he is not mistaken.

He twitches and I am by Elixir's side before he calls to me. I look at Sabretooth and collect as much visual data on the subject as I can. He is tall, estimated six-foot eleven to seven-foot tall. He is approximately three hundred pounds with only a three percent body fat ratio in his weight making the rest muscle tone. His claws are not adamantium, yet they are stronger than most metals and neither do they retract. They are part of his natural physiology, as part of his fingernails. Despite Elixir's propensity for healing himself from attacks by opponents that out-class him, I can see he is no match for Sabretooth.

"I can handle him, Josh. You go to bed. I need to assess how hostile Sabretooth is with a solitary caretaker in the room and formulate a prediction on how to best protect you and him from his animalistic bloodlust." I tell Elixir. He looks at me with a knowing look in his eyes. There are very few people in this world who know when I am lying, maybe less than one dozen. Elixir is one of them. He is more than my teammate. He is my friend, probably one of my closest since Cessily and Julian have pushed me away. He was also my lover.

"Laura, I don't know if that is a good idea. You need your rest too. You're still recovering from the incident with Kimaura. Dr. McCoy told you to take it easy, remember? Going ten rounds with Sabretooth isn't exactly taking it easy." He said in his gentlest voice. I knew he was trying to protect me, but there were some things I just had to know.

"I promise I will keep his restraints on, Josh. I will come to bed shortly" I answered curtly still leaving my X-23 mask on. He knew it was no good fighting with me when I was in that state.

"Okay, Laura, you win. But, if you're not in bed by eleven 'o clock I'm going to send Angel down to get you" he threatened before walking out of the room. As soon as I heard him leave the medical bay, I walked over to the control console and turned off the security cameras. Then, as not to raise suspicion, I fed them a feed of me sitting my Sabretooth's bedside occasionally checking his I.V. Vanisher was on security duty tonight. He would not notice the loop like Wolverine and Domino would. I turned back toward Sabretooth's bed.

"I know you are not asleep. You have been conscious for the last 52.3 minutes. I noticed the spike in your pulse before you forced it low again." I said placing my hands on my hips in what I knew from Julian's descriptions was "a very intimidating stare". Slowly the restrained prisoner opened his eyes and stared at me.

"Well I'll be! Is this the little girl that turned the Weapon X world on its head? You grew up a bit from the last time I saw you, darlin', and guess what? You filled out nice." He drawled licking his lips. He was referring to my first mission when I posed as the Kingpin's daughter at the age of eight. I was called Samantha Fisk then. The undercover operation took nearly six months. I had briefly met Sabretooth when he had threatened my "father" in his office while we were going over safety plans. That was ten years ago.

"Sabretooth I have many questions for you, but my first is: what do you prefer to be called Victor Creed or Sabretooth?" I asked briskly. I needed to make him comfortable enough to give me the answers I needed.

"Jimmy was the last person to ever genuinely call me 'Victor'. Might be nice to hear it again from the lips of a pretty lady." He said wolfishly. I nodded. By "Jimmy" he was referring to Wolverine in a variant of his given name, James. "What is your name, princess?"

"Samantha is fine" I said using a name he already knew me by to make him comfortable. He laughed.

"Really, Sammy? Cos I coulda swore I heard golden boy call you 'Laura'?" He said flexing against his restraints. I could smell his arousal on him. Either he found my body physically attractive or his animalistic instincts were taking over. Either way he was enjoying taunting me.

"My legal name is Laura." I answered him. No need to let him know my emotional connection with my name. Between us, it was just a designation.

"A lot prettier than 'Samantha', I'll tell you that right now" he growled I unsheathed my claws and got into a fighting position.

"What did Kimaura take from me when I was in Facility custody in the past six months?" I asked him. He was not present at my kidnapping, nor my torture or escape, but his scent was in the facility at approximately the time of my arrival. He would know what she wanted.

"Some of your ovum cells." He answered seeing that our banter had ended. He became Weapon X's soldier once more.

"She plans to clone me?" I asked formulating a plan already to stop such a horrid thing from occurring. Sabretooth shook his head.

"No. She wants to combine your DNA with another powerful mutant. Basically she wants to create your son or daughter." He said. I jumped to stand at the edge of his bed.

"Where is she and how can I stop her?" I growled. Kimaura could not be allowed to do to another child what she did with me. I would kill my child before I would let it live that way.

"Well I could track her for you, but what would I get out of it?" he asked smirking. I snarled and held my claws to his throat.

"You would live" I said simply. His eyes flashed with an emotion I had seen in Kimaura's eyes many times. Joy. Joy at the thought of the kill at the thought of domination. He burst out of his restraints. I needed time to reformulate a plan.

"No need to play possum with you anymore, huh, princess?" He said quickly grabbing me around the waist. I sliced at him as much as I could but he healed from the wounds "Settle we're gonna go find your momma and stop her." I froze.

"My creator/birth mother is Dr. Sarah Kinney. My legal mother is Sarah Kinney's sister Deborah Kinney." I said and Sabretooth put his face in his hand.

"I wasn't supposed to tell you that." He said sighing. "Okay, I guess it's time to tell you the whole deal, huh princess?"

I nodded and he set me down on my feet. I stared up at him and inhaled his scent. It did not change. He was not lying. He finally took his face out of his hand and stared down at me.

"Sarah Kinney is the woman who created you. Her chromosomes filled the missing links within Jimmy's DNA, which gave you a slightly different physique than Jimmy's" He began slowly checking my eyes to see if I believed him. "For example, If you were solely Jimmy's clone, you would have blue eyes but you don't. Who do you know who had such pretty green peepers?"

"So you are saying Dr. Kinney is not just my creator, she is my biological mother?" I asked him sitting on the edge of his bed. Sabretooth stood over me.

"Well not exactly. If you were to take a genetic test, it would tell you that you had about a 60% chance of her being your mother, and any sisters she had would come back with the same result. It would hold up in court, but technically she has about as much biological relation to you as a maternal aunt." He explained. I looked up at him and detected no lie in his voice. It did explain why we shared so many physical characteristics. "It's about a seventy/thirty genetic split. But, despite popular belief, Sarah Kinney didn't give birth to you. She did not pass the diagnostic tests to be able to give birth to you safely for either one of ya."

"What genetic defect did she have?" I asked, curious. I had always gone off what Dr. Sutter and Dr. Rice had told me. Dr. Kinney was not allowed to have intimate conversations with me, so she would have been unable to relay to me that she was my biological mother, but not my birth mother.

"Birth canal was too narrow. The pelvis wouldn't separate. You woulda got stuck in there and she would have bled out. Of course, they were more concerned with the fact that you would have asphyxiated before they could get you out." He said cocking his eyebrow "According to your medical records, you suffer from the same condition."

My head snapped up. I had never known that intimate detail about myself, but the fact that Sabretooth knew that about me before I did, did not surprise nor anger me. Most individuals that knew X-23 knew more about me than I did.

"Who gave birth to me?" I asked almost dreading the answer. I had convinced myself that my mother gave me some good in my soul, but if another person had birthed me; did I inherit their shortcomings?

"Kimaura" He said. He had something suspiciously close to pity in his eyes, but I did not care. The worst thing that I could ever have imagined had occurred to me.

"My mother is the woman who sawed off my arm and tortured me relentlessly since I was seven-years-old?" I asked calmly. Inside my head was tortured. Kimaura was my mother. This could only mean that I was evil if such a creature had given birth to me.

"Come on, princess don't act so shocked. I mean I really doubt Jimmy told you the whole story about Kinney and Kimaura, but he had to have told you something." He said and my head snapped up once more to look at him.

"Wolverine knew about this?" I asked. I felt what little bit of a heart I had developed breaking. I had begun to believe perhaps I was a person, but with the recent information, I felt my humanity slipping further away from me. I observed Sabretooth's shock with a masked face.

"He really didn't tell you?" he asked. He grabbed my chin and stroked my cheek with a single claw. "He calls you his daughter, yet he lies to you. Guess that's something he's good at."

I pulled away from him. Wolverine was my father; legally, biologically, and emotionally. How could he betray me in such a way? He had always promised that he would take care of me, love me. But his words regarding Rahne Sinclair after I had insulted her haunted me

"_Shut up and listen! Rahne Sinclair has two things we'll never get back- hope and innocence. She's who we save. She's why we risk our lives. She's who we die for!"_

"He loves you, princess. He must have been trying to protect you. He must have known how it would affect you." Said Sabretooth squatting down to my level. Why was he attempting to reconcile me with Wolverine's decision? From all the data I had been given on him, he hated Wolverine and never showed any affection for anyone not even his own son, the anti-mutant politician Graydon Creed.

"'Sinclair is more important than you or me. Our lives are worth nothing compared to hers.'" I said a tear slipping from beneath my eyes. That surprised me. I usually had complete control of my bodily functions. Sabretooth caught the tear on his claw and he looked at me with full pity in his eyes.

"What did you say?" He asked in a gentle growl. He tentatively put his arms around me and pulled me to him. I replayed my conversation with him over and over in my head.

"He loves Rahne Sinclair more than me, He loves Jubilee more than me, he loves Kitty Pryde more than me, _and he even loves Megan Gwynn more than me_!" I screamed in anguish, burying my face against Sabretooth's bare chest, finally letting loose years of frustration against Wolverine flow out of my body. "He knew that I was at that Facility since I was seven-year-old and he left me there! He knew I was alone in San Francisco and he left me there! He knew where I was when Kimaura abducted me and _he left me there_!"

Sabretooth seemed unsettled by my froth of emotion, but he continued to hold me crooning softly in my ear. Finally, when I had regained control of my emotions I looked up at him. He stared into my eyes for a moment before he slanted his mouth over mine, kissing me roughly. I quickly pushed him away.

"You have people that love you here. I could feel it in Foley's body. He would die for you. And no matter what they say, Keller and Kincaid miss you. Kincaid's been a damn zombie since she told you to get away from her, and Keller has been the epitome of anti-social behavior. Hell, when Frost found out what Summers made you do she slapped him and called him a "baby-killer"" he said trying to convince me "Worthington wants to do some very kinky yet loving things to you, ya know. And Domino wants to take care of you so bad she can't stand it."

I looked into his eyes. Was I blind to all the people who wanted so desperately to love me? I looked up at Sabretooth and touched his face gently. He was maybe the one person who would ever understand my pain.

"We will discuss this later. Right now we must go and stop Kimaura." I said standing and going to the door, punching in the security code. "Come on, I will get some of Warpath's clothes. They should fit you."

I could see him sigh audibly as he hauled himself up. In only his underwear, I could see his physique in a new light, it was slightly attractive. Incorrect. I should not be thinking such thoughts. I was in a relationship with Josh. I should not think of other men in such a way. Then I remembered Josh's threat.

"I must go to bed long enough to convince my boyfriend not to raise the alarm." I said putting my hand on his chest. He growled. He did not like the thought of anyone else owning me. He grabbed me by my throat and pulled me off my feet until I was eye level with him. Considering the fact that I was five-foot three, it was a significant height difference.

"You are mine. I won't debate that with you right now because we have a mission to complete, but remember this: every touch and kiss he gives you are ones stolen from me, and I don't like people who steal from me." He said whispering against the shell of my ear. "You have one hour to meet me on the balcony with the clothes."

He dropped me and walked away. I slowly got to my feet and considered what he was saying. I could not allow him to hurt Josh; he was the only person in my entire life who truly and totally loved me. I slowly trudged up the stairs and went into the room I shared with Josh against Wolverine's wishes.

Josh was awake and reading one of his giant medical textbooks. He looked up as I walked in and closed the door.

"I was starting to get worried. You know I've been researching Sabretooth's wounds and compared them to Wolverine's healing factor. Even though he only has a fraction of it, Sabretooth should have been able to heal himself by now, especially since he had outside help." He said as I crossed the room to remove my uniform. He smiled appreciatively as my pants and top hit the floor. I pulled on one of his overly large tee shirts and crawled into bed. He stared at me oddly.

"What is it, Josh?" I asked trying desperately trying to hide my fear and pain from him. I knew that I would fail at that. He always seemed to know when something was bothering me.

"Usually you would be able to give me some sort of plausible explanation. Are you okay?" he asked. I knew I had to distract him. I kissed him deeply, plunging my tongue into his mouth. I heard his sound of surprise as he resisted for a moment, but he eventually joined in. I separated after a moment to look into his surprised and amused expression. "What was that for?"

"For loving me" I answered truthfully cupping his face in my hands. "Josh if you knew something bad about me, something unforgiveable, would you still love me?"

"Laura, there is nothing that you could ever do that could make me stop loving you" he answered. I almost cried when his scent didn't change proving he was telling the truth.

"Do you promise me?" I asked feeling the unwanted tears sliding down my face. He cupped my face in his hands, gently wiping away my tears.

"I, Joshua Foley, promise to love you, Laura Kinney, for the rest of my life. No matter what you might do." He said gently kissing me.

"Thank-you, Josh" I said pushing away from him "I am tired. We will need all of our rest if we are to continue with Sabretooth's treatment tomorrow."

He smiled and laid down again wrapping his arms around my waist. As usual, he fell asleep right away, his snoring loud and obnoxious. It drowned out the silence that allowed my nightmares to fester. I carefully and quickly got out of the bed and packed a quick bag full of clothes. I slipped on my skinny jeans and purple tank top quickly and then laced up my combat boots. I slipped on my X-Men belt and leather coat that Gambit had given me and finally pinned up my hair in a bun. As an afterthought I slipped on the locket my sister Megan had given me.

"Laura… I love you…" I heard and I turned toward the bed. Josh was still fast asleep. I smiled and bent over his unconscious form to kiss him on the forehead.

"I love you too" I said before grabbing my backpack and heading out the door, careful not to make too much noise so I wouldn't wake him. I stopped by Warpath's room and went to his drawers. I quickly grabbed an X-Men tee-shirt and a pair of his jeans and one of his belts. As an afterthought, I grabbed a pair of his boots. I barely missed the knife flying at my head.

"Who's there?" growled a voice from the bed. James Proudstar. I had forgotten about his super senses. Damn.

"It is me, James. I am getting some clothes for Sabretooth to wear tomorrow. Josh and I predict that he will be fully conscious by tomorrow. I am sorry for awaking you" I said putting on my best smile. He stared at me for a moment before cracking a smile and sighing.

"God, Laura, you scared the crap out of me! Next time you can just ask!" he said sounding profoundly relieved it was just me. "Go to bed. Josh won't go to sleep until you do"

I smiled and nodded "Thank-you, James. I will see you in the morning" I quickly lied exiting quickly as I saw James Proudstar turning on his side to go back to sleep.

I quickly navigated to the balcony where I was greeted with the sight of Sabretooth in his underwear only glaring at me. I quickly threw the clothes at him which he quickly put on.

"I thought I said an hour." He growled while lacing up his own boots. I frowned.

"I had to get past everyone. People in this house are very used to defending themselves in the middle of the night" I explained. Sabretooth growled and smelled my hair as I came close.

"I can smell him on you" he hissed. I didn't even blink. I would not leave without saying good-bye to Josh and I would not apologize for it.

"Get over it" I said quoting Cessily. His eyebrows shot toward the skies revealing his surprise. He quickly turned away and jumped on the balcony rail.

"We need to get going. We have a limited amount of time before Kimaura finishes maturing and inseminating your eggs. Let's go." He said jumping off the balcony and expecting me to follow. I looked back toward the house which held the two men I cared most about in the entire world. The man I loved and my father, who even though he had betrayed me, I still loved more than life itself.

"I am sorry everyone." I whispered feeling one final tear escaping my eye before I jumped onto the railing to follow Sabretooth. "I love you, Josh… and you too, Daddy".

**Author's Note: Okay, I love love love this pairing! No one ever seems to put them together and it depressed me. I put her with Josh in the beginning because I wanted to give Laura someone she could compare Victor to. I also wanted to give Laura someone she felt she could constantly lean on (plus maybe a little bit of a love triangle). Believe it or not, Logan will actually betray Laura much more than he already has. Will her love extend that far? (When you're thinking of what Sabretooth might look like, think more X-Men Origins: Wolverine).**


	2. A Father's Choice

**Innocence**_ Laura K. and Victor C._ Rated M

I do _**not **_own the X-Men, X-23, Sabretooth or any other Marvel characters presented in this story. They are all property of Marvel Comics Inc. its corporations and affiliates. X-23 is property of Craig Kyle.

**Chapter Two: A Father's Choice**

I woke up in the morning and immediately reached for the beer behind my head on the bedside table and took a long hard swallow. My mind drifted to Sabretooth being chained several floors below me being looked over by two sniveling teenagers. Ok, one sniveling teenager and a gene-perfected, highly-trained, super-sensory, sometimes killing-spree induced teenage girl that I called my daughter. All those thoughts were enough to make me get out of the bed and pull my blue jeans on.

I walked out of my bedroom and passed by my latter mentioned daughter's bedroom and noticed it hadn't been slept in. I wanted to throw my hands up in the air; I had specifically told her that she could not sleep with her boyfriend, but apparently she didn't listen to me. I stormed to Foley's room and threw the door open. He barely twitched and I sniffed. Laura had definitely been in that bed. I pulled the blanket off of Foley causing him to fall in the floor with a loud bump.

"Ow! Hey, man, what is your… your problem?" He said then faltered off as he figured out who had woken him. How could my tough as nails Laura choose such a wimpy kid as the man she loved?

"I've told you a million and one times, Foley, I don't like you dating Laura, but I won't make that choice for her. However, I will make the choice she can't sleep in the same room as you due to the fact that you two are too young to be having sex." I growled at him and he seemed to cower. His whole body reeked with fear. "Where is Laura?"

"I guess she would either be eating breakfast or she would be checking on Sabretooth to work out a strategy on how to handle him fully conscious" He said getting up off the floor and putting a tee shirt and pants on.

"I got our strategy already worked out for that. Neither of your underage butts are going anywhere near him fully conscious. He is a nut." I said simply hauling him out of his room by his forearm. I went into the kitchen and threw him in a chair. Angel laughed at the rough treatment.

"He sleep with Laura again?" he asked. I glared at him and grunted. Most people didn't understand how I could be so protective of her behind her back and then act like she meant nothing to me to her face. I wasn't even sure that I had ever acknowledged her as my daughter when she was around. I usually introduced her as my sister.

To be fair, for a long time I thought Laura was my biological twin sister. I had been led to believe by certain people who shall not be named, (her mother), that Laura was my clone created from a damaged DNA sample which would explain why she was a girl. Then, about two years after I first met Laura, I found her mother's case notes and the truth.

Sarah Kinney had determined that she could create a viable embryo through damaged DNA, but the gender development would have to be determined by a surrogate mother under natural conditions. She told Rice and Sutter that it would be a girl, because she didn't see nine months in a womb being able to make a degraded "Y" chromosome develop even though there was a 30% chance of it being a boy.

Anyway, the embryo was almost complete when it was inserted into the surrogate with seventy percent of my genes, but Sarah was forced by Rice to provide the project with the other thirty percent. That was how Laura came to be. She wasn't my clone she was a part of me. She was my daughter.

I had confronted Sarah's sister, Debbie, about what I had learned and she said it didn't matter how Laura was related to her, or if she wasn't at all, she loved her just the same. I convinced her that Laura needed a real mother figure in her life. Sarah loved her, no doubt about it, but she had used her own daughter, forced her to kill, just like the rest of those Facility cronies. Debbie agreed and with a little persuasion from me, Matt Murdock aka Daredevil was able to get a birth certificate filed for Laura Logan Kinney. Father listed as James Howlett (me) and mother as Deborah Kinney (Debbie). Laura didn't take to kindly to us wiping Sarah out as her mother, but it was what was best for her.

"Where is Laura?" I asked Angel, no longer wanting to ponder over my questionable parenting choices.

"Who knows? I haven't seen her all morning. James said something about Laura coming into his room last night and scaring the bejeezus out of him…" started Angel when a flash of light alerted them to Telford Porter aka Vanisher entering the kitchen.

"Whoa, wait a minute, Proudstar said she was in his room last night?" he said, hands on his hips "well that's impossible unless she has the ability to clone herself." He was silent for a moment and then busted out laughing at his own pun. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you mean, Porter?" I growled, grabbing a fresh beer from the fridge and popping the top off. I took one long gulp to ease my nerves.

"Well, according to video surveillance, she has been guarding Sabretooth all night" he said and Josh sputtered on his milk (which he was drinking out of the carton) and looked at him.

"That's not possible, Telford. She came to bed at eleven-thirty." He said and then backtracked "I mean she…she went to b-bed at-"

"I KNEW IT!" I screamed, popping out my claws on one hand and slashed them in the general direction of the golden boy menacingly "I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE NOT GOING TO SLEEP IN THE SAME BED TOGETHER, AND YOU DISOBEYED ME!'

"Come on, Logan, like you didn't know that they were sleeping together" said Angel exasperatedly, putting his head in his hand.

"THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE FROM HAVING SOME IDEA AND THEN THE TEENAGE DEGENERATE COMING OUT AND SAYING HE DID IT!" I yelled. Foley hid behind Angel as if he would protect him, but if I knew Warren, which I did, he would just move out of the way if it came to a fight.

"Um, guys, not that this fight isn't amusing, but weren't we discussing how X-23 couldn't have been with Sabretooth all night, yet the monitors are telling us she was?" Asked Telford helpfully. I glared at him and pointed to the door.

"Have Domino, Sinclair, and Proudstar meet us in the basement, PRONTO!" I roared. Everyone scattered to obey me. I flipped open a phone in my pocket and dialed the number to a burn phone I'd once given Laura for when she was on missions or went completely AWOL, which was pretty often "Come on, half-pint, pick up!"

After three rings the phone was answered and my blood ran cold when I heard the voice on the other end speak in a husky growl:

"Hey, Jimmy. Long time no see." The voice of Victor Creed filled my ears ending in a husky laugh.

"Creed! Where is Laura? What have you done to her?" I snarled into the phone anger bubbling up from a place I knew all too well. I hadn't been this upset since Jean had last died. But this wasn't about the woman I loved. This was about my little girl, my only little girl.

"You mean little princess? She's fine, just a little tied up at the moment." He answered smoothly, as if he had nothing in the world to answer for. "We had fun playing tag last night. Now we're playing hide and seek."

"I swear to God, Creed, if you've harmed one hair on her head, I'll…" I began but was stopped by a bone chilling laugh.

"Kill me? Oh, that's rich, Jimmy." He guffawed loudly. "The last time you used that threat on me was when I killed Silver Fox. You remember her, right? Man, I gotta tell you, I thought I hit the jackpot with her, but, damn, after checking out princess, I can see I was wrong."

"Creed, please…" I begged, not something I did very often and certainly never to Sabretooth, "Please, don't hurt her. Just… Just bring her back. I-I'll do anything you want. Just bring her back to me."

"You know, Jimmy, there was a time when I would've taken you up on that offer." The low rumble on the other end of the line stated quietly "I thought you were worth waiting on. Now I can see you weren't. There's only one person in this God-forsaken program that is, and I'm standing here looking at her."

"Please…Victor, Please." I whispered, tears beginning to stream down my face. The emotional onslaught was too much and I fell to my knees.

"Good-bye, Jimmy" said the voice on the other end of the line and then the line went dead, most likely my child's life with it.

**Las Vegas, Nevada: Apartment of Victor Creed:**

"Why did you do that?" She asked hands on her hips. Her face turned down into a scowl, a favorite face of hers, I'd noticed. She thought it was intimidating, and to most people it probably would be, but to a guy like me, it was too cute. "Why didn't you let me talk to him?"

"Because, you would have told him what we were doing and he would have raised the X-symbol, or whatever the hell you guys use to contact each other, and that would have gotten to Kimaura and we'd be sunk" I explained, nonchalantly crushing her phone in my hand much to her visual chagrin "But, mainly 'cause I like to screw with Jimmy"

She growled at me and stormed over to bed where I was and smartly tried to slap me. I easily caught her tiny wrist and grinned at her, she had fight; I'd give her that.

"You purposely made him think you intended to kill me" she snarled angrily "You haven't thought about how that will make him react?"

"Actually I have. I know how Jimmy is. He'll disappear on some covert op to find me like he always does and our mission won't be compromised" I said, getting angry at her suggestion of my stupidity. I used my other hand to grab her by the throat and slammed her against the wall "And besides, who's to say I won't kill you when this is all over? I mean, I'm a bloodthirsty killing machine. It's in my DNA. My instincts are to mate with you and then slice your head off."

Instead of gasping for air and looking at me with pleading eyes like my other victims, she stared at me, defiance sparking in her eyes. The last woman who'd looked at me like that while in my death grip had been:

"Silver Fox" I muttered, immediately letting go of my raven-haired captive's throat, recoiling away from her.

"No. My name is Laura" she said, rubbing her throat "but if it makes you more comfortable, I will answer to Silver Fox"

"No!" I practically screamed at her, pinning her to the wall by her arms. "You will not mention her name again! She's none of your concern."

"Alright, then. Please let go of me, Sabretooth." She said smoothly as if it were normal to be pinned to the wall by a hulking 300 lbs. man. I quickly let go and stared into her eyes. Such a pretty green color.

"Victor" I sighed, running a hand through my shorn hair "My name is Victor. Now we have to figure out how the heck we're gonna find Kimaura."

"That is simple." She said and I looked at her oddly "I go back to the Facility and tell her that her 'sweet girl' has come home"

I blanched at that idea. The last time Kimaura had called her a 'sweet girl' was when she'd sawed off Laura's arm. She was suggesting preying on Kimaura's sadistic tendencies by dangling her favorite chew toy in her face like a piece of meat.

"No way. You're not gonna be hacked up like a lamb to the slaughter to distract that psychopath!" I said "We'll find another way to get in, one that doesn't involve you being worked on with power tools"

"Why do you care? You just told me that you were fighting the urge to kill me; not to mention what you told Wolverine!" She yelled, throwing her hands up in exasperation, something uncommon for her. She'd been trained to never show emotion (actually, more accurately, she'd been stripped of emotion and their natural responses).

"That's me, and if I'm gonna kill you, it's gonna be done cleanly. Kimaura is messy and torturous. It's not happening. That, _and_ I need you to help me track your cells once inside the installment." I said casually crossing my arms over my chest. She looked livid at my suggestion, but it wasn't going down the way she wanted.

"Fine. Then help me figure out another way to find Kimaura!" She said storming over to the bed and sitting down on it with a huffy flounce. I rubbed my temples again and felt the pressure rush to my head again. Why on Earth did this woman have to push my buttons; and why was I _letting_ her bother me so bad?

"We'll figure it out, ok?" I growled, trying to get her to drop the subject. Geez, if it wasn't for the fact that I needed her to track down her cells, I probably wouldn't have brought her along. Then again, I probably would have. She made me light up. Something about her body, her personality, her damn _eyes_, made me want to drool. No woman had ever done that.

"Victor?" she asked looking at me with sympathy in her eyes. I looked at her and smiled wide.

"Yes, princess?"

"I am going to kill you when all of this is over." She said with a smile, unleashing the claws in her left hand with a familiar 'snikt!'. I grinned at her. There was Jimmy. This girl was him made over, the way she moved, talked, and thought were a direct echo of him. None of his kids would ever be as close to him as she was. Absolute perfection.

"We'll see, princess, we'll see" I said with a dark chuckle.

**X-Force Headquarters: Angel's Aerie, Rocky Mnts., Colorado:**

"This doesn't make any sense! Why would Laura free Sabretooth? Why would she betray the X-Men?" Cried Josh when we all discovered that Sabretooth was gone and that Laura had definitely freed him.

"She may not have, Josh. She may have felt like she was the one who was betrayed." said Emma Frost. We'd summoned her to help us make sense of the mystery along with her own clones, the Three-in-One; three little blonde girls who looked and acted just like her.

"What are you talking about, Frost?" said Domino, irritation leaking into her voice, and her hand twitching toward her gun. "How did any of us betray Laura?"

"Since it has become common knowledge among all X-Members the existence of X-Force, many people have stated that they knew Laura would always revert to this. That she was after all, born to kill." She said with a dismissive flip of her dyed platinum blonde hair. My blood boiled.

"You make her sound like she had a choice in all of this, Frost!" I screamed "Laura had no say in what anyone made her do! It has always been ground into her to obey her superiors! When Summers had her join X-Force, she didn't have any more choice in it than if you'd brainwashed her! Don't you dare say that she chose this!"

"I'm not, Logan. If anything _you_ chose this for her." Said Frost staring at me coldly. "Let me make something perfectly clear. I may have done things harshly where Laura is concerned. I've crossed boundaries with her that I shouldn't have. However, she is my student and I care about what happens to her. I never wanted to throw her into this, I never wanted to remind her of the Hell she lived in for thirteen years, and I certainly _never_ wanted to force her to kill again. However, I am just her headmistress. I can't make decisions for her. You can. You are her father, and she is a seventeen-year-old girl. You need to understand that, Logan. When she makes the wrong choice, as a parent it's your responsibility to show her why she was wrong; and in cases where she could put herself in danger, you need to decide for her. If she chose to go to Sabretooth, it's because you didn't care, and she knew that. Actions speak louder than words, Logan, and I think Laura got sick of your actions telling her how much you love everyone else and how little you care for her. You have cost her the only stable environment she's ever had and the only friends she's ever known, and that, Logan is something you will have to live with for the rest of your life, so don't get angry with me because you've pushed away the only good thing you've ever managed to do in your life"

Frost's accusations knocked the wind out of me as if she had physically punched me. She was right, everything that Laura had ever gone through had been because of my choices. I held myself so high above her mother that I didn't even realize that my own actions had contributed to Laura's pain. She had chosen to go with Sabretooth, most likely because he had convinced her that I had chosen to walk away from her like I did him, and now she was probably dead or at least hurt because of it.

"Emma that was uncalled for" snapped Cyclops who was also in the room. He looked furious that Frost had spoken her mind. He obviously didn't agree with her view. That or he was too kind to say that he agreed. More likely than not, it was the latter.

"It's alright, Scott. She's right. I've been pushing Laura to the side because I really thought she could handle what was going on, but, to her it probably felt like abandonment. Everybody else in her life has ended up leaving her. I will never let that happen again. I am going to find her and we are going to work things out like a father and daughter should." I said with conviction in my voice. I was headed for the door when something grabbed my arm. I turned and it was Frost.

"_We_ are going to find her. That is the choice that we make," she said motioning to everyone in the room: Cyclops, Foley, Proudstar, Domino, Wolfsbane, Vanisher, Angel, Dr. Nemesis, and Three-in-One (Celeste, Mindee, and Phoebe).

"You're not the only one who loves her" said Foley softly, but firmly. I stared at him for a moment. It was the first time that he'd ever shown any backbone around me. Maybe there was hope for him yet. I grabbed him by the neck and ruffled his blonde hair.

"I thank God for that, kid, I really do"


	3. A Mother's Love

**Innocence**_ Laura K. and Victor C._ Rated M

I do _**not **_own the X-Men, X-23, Sabretooth, or any other Marvel characters presented in this story. They are all property of Marvel Comics Inc. its corporations and affiliates. X-23 is property of Craig Kyle.

**Chapter Three: A Mother's Love**

"How could you have let this happen, Logan?" asked a very hysterical Debbie Kinney in her kitchen. "You swore you'd keep her safe. You promised me!"

"I know, Debbie, I know," I said, looking at my feet in shame. Debbie had always genuinely wanted what was best for Laura. On more than one occasion, she wanted to bring Laura back to San Francisco and away from the X-Men. I had convinced her not to and look at the mess our kid was in now.

"Well, we have to find her!" screeched Debbie, her hands going up to her own short raven colored hair manically "If the Facility gets their hands on her again, oh God, if _Kimaura _gets her hands on her again- oh, Logan, I just couldn't bear it."

I nodded in agreement. That psycho female would kill Laura to prove her alpha female dominance. It wouldn't matter to her at all that she carried Laura in her womb for nine months and gave birth to her. She had the same maternal instincts as a fish; have them, and then eat them.

"We have gathered everyone close to Laura." Said Frost putting her hands on her hips "that way, when we find her, we can convince her to come home."

Debbie's eyes went wide as she grabbed Frost's arm. "I am coming with you," she said in a powerful authoritative voice she didn't normally possess. I shook my head.

"Debbie, this mission is extremely dangerous. It would only cause Laura further grief if you were hurt." I said but she wrenched out of my grip with surprising strength.

"She's my daughter, Logan," she said desperately "She's the only part of my sister I have left. I can't lose her, not again."

I looked into those emerald green orbs, so like Laura's and I understood. Debbie _needed_ to be there for Laura now to make up for all those years of not knowing about her, not saving her.

"Alright, but you'll have an X-Man escort the whole time," I said turning away from her to glare at Frost "Who've you gathered?"

"The usual: Julian, Cessily, Sooraya, Jubilee, Susan, Ororo, and Remy" she said naming the people Laura clung to the most in the world "And for added measure I've brought Nori, Kitty, and Daken"

"Wait a minute!" I growled "Daken _Aikihiro_? As in my_ son _Daken?"

"Yes, Logan, it would seem that the two of them share an_ interesting _bond." Said Frost unapologetically "I think he and Megan may be able to get through to her if no one else can."

"Megan?" I howled not even daring to believe what Frost was suggesting, "Debbie can join us if she wants. She's an adult, and that's her prerogative. However, Megan is a kid, and a kid with no supernatural powers at that. She's not going."

"Oh, yes I am!" cried a high-pitched voice from the door. I turned to see a skinny teenage girl with blonde hair in a pixie cut and the same green eyes as the rest of her maternal line. Megan. Damn. "Laura is my sister! You can't ask me to just sit on the sidelines if she's hurt!"

"How do you suggest we protect you?" I snarled back at her, "You think if you get hurt it won't destroy your momma? It wouldn't destroy Laura?" The tiny blonde-haired woman looked taken aback for a moment as if realizing she couldn't help us.

"I will be her personal guard." Said a voice from the door, a voice I knew all too well. My son, Daken Aikihiro. I turned to see him.

He looked just as I remembered him, his black hair in a Mohawk, strong muscles bulging against his black wife-beater and a black tattoo coiling up his left arm.

"You?" I sneered at the boy "Why should I trust you to do anything?"

"Because, onee-chan means a lot to me. I may have fought her, but I also freed her." He said stubbornly "and mostly, she should not suffer for your mistakes."

The boy's accusation floored me. Who knew better than him that I was a crap father? He would've bonded with Laura easily over my lack of care towards her. Between him and Megan, they might be able to get her back.

"Fine" I finally snarled back "but know that I'm watching you"

"I'd expect no less," he said before turning on his heel and exiting the kitchen. As he passed by Megan, however, he paused. "I would like a word with you"

Megan paled slightly at being spoken to directly by this beast of a man but nodded and followed him out.

"He won't hurt her Logan. I'm reading his mind," said Frost, almost amused at my worry for the teenage blonde

"Goody for you," I said churlishly "now, we need a game plan if we're ever going to outwit Sabretooth"

**San Francisco, the room of Megan Kinney**

I followed the strange boy up the stairs to my room. He entered and looked around. His nose wrinkled slightly at all of the pink and frills but stopped on the wall above my desk. It almost like a shrine. A shrine dedicated to Laura.

I had multiple pictures I had taken of Laura over the years, some of her, some of her and friends at the Xavier Institute, a couple of her and Mom or her and Logan, and a very rare one of her and Sue Storm and Spider-man and me. She had the ghost of a smile on her lips in all of them, a miracle for Laura. I also had pictures of her I'd drawn myself, including my favorite, Laura in a forest with a brilliant silver green-eyed wolf at her side dressed as a native woman of the land. She looked stunning.

"You love onee-chan?" he asked softly touching the charcoal picture

"I'm sorry; I don't know what that means." I said and he chuckled.

"I suppose higher education was only spared for her," he said, "I asked if you love my little sister."

The question took me aback. For so long, I had thought that I was the only sibling Laura had but I had forgotten that Logan more than likely had sired other children over the years. This was one of them.

"Yes I love her," I answered, my voice barely above a whisper "She's my heart. I was almost dead inside before she came along. She saved me, in more ways than one."

"I too feel that type of connection with her." He said, "I wanted so much to hate her for so long, but now I discover that she too awakened something once thought dead inside of me."

"You love her?" I fired his question back at him and he sighed running his hand through his hair

"As much as I can love anyone, I love her." He said quietly caressing a picture of Laura and Logan.

"Does Logan?" I dared to ask. He froze but only for an instant.

"Logan's definition of love is difficult to describe." He said innocently. "Most people he loves end up dead; Mariko Yashida, Jean Grey, Silver Fox, and even my own mother Itsu. He is not known for being kind to those who love him. It is probably more accurate to say he is frightened to love her."

"Oh," was all I said. This boy had never experienced Logan's love, much like Laura. I myself had always watched him show more affection to friends and students than her. Was it true to say he was afraid to show her affection?

"She is precious to so many, yet we leave her." He said suddenly. I snapped my head towards him.

"Laura left us, not the other way around" said a voice from the door. I turned and saw a girl with electric blue bobbed hair in crop top and low-rise pants. Her arms were covered in metal gauntlets crossed across her chest stubbornly. Behind her, a girl with an Arab garb and veil stood with her eyes cast modestly to the floor along with two boys. One seemed to be made entirely of stone and having a hulking figure and the other had the other was a good-looking black haired boy with no hands.

"Why though?" I asked desperately putting my hands up on the air. Everyone tensed and looked around "Why didn't anyone see how bad she was slipping? We all can say all day that we loved her and that we left her or she left us, but _why _did this happen?"

"We leaned on her," said the Arab girl "When we were sad or upset we used her to lean on. She had no one to help her."

Everyone was silent for a moment as if processing that fact. Everyone thought Laura was strong, stronger than most, but actually she was one of the people in the most need of help.

"Please," I begged desperately grabbing the cobalt-haired girl's arm "You have to help me find her. I love Laura. Are you going to sit here and tell me that you don't?"

The girl's face clouded with pain as though I had slapped her. She quickly jerked out of my grip and stalked out of the room followed by the raven-haired boy who hadn't said a word. The stone boy guffawed loudly and slapped my back lightly.

"I've never seen Nori at a loss for words, or Julian for that manner." He said still laughing "They care about Laura; they care a lot more than they want to admit. I personally think she's freaky, but hey, that's what makes her, well, uh, Laura."

I wanted to glare at him, but realized that his small jab at her was his way of acknowledging that he cared as well and I grabbed his hand. He squeezed back encouragingly and I knew I had a friend in him.

"Do not worry, Megan," said the Arab girl taking my other hand "we will find her."

**The Facility, location undisclosed**

"You told me that X-23 would come as soon as she figured out your plan, Kimura," said a shadowy figure sitting behind a desk. Kimura growled slightly.

"Obviously, she's learned not to strike fast anymore." She said with an eye roll. "Last time we met, I sawed off her arm. She's learned stealth, the one thing we had to beat into her."

"I think that perhaps you've become too emotionally invested in this. You're desperate to have her back," said the voice with nonchalant grace. "We should be proceeding with the project, but instead we're waiting around for a rogue agent who, although represents a valuable investment, is useless to us. You are jeopardizing the mission. They say Sarah Kinney was like that in the end. Are you becoming like her, Kimura? Are your affections for your child blinding you to the problems you face?"

Kimura swore and knocked a lamp off his desk. "I am not like Sarah Kinney," she spat out through gritted teeth. "She was weak in the end, in fact she always was. The only reason I want X-23 back is that I made a promise. One I fully intend to fulfill."

"Very well, my dear," said the voice "You may go."

Kimura stalked out of the room fuming. How dare he accuse her of not being devoted to the mission? Had she not risked everything so that the little beast could be brought into existence for the Facility? She had carried the fetus in her body for nine months, and even nursed her for a year for vital nutrients. The longer she held the little runt, the more she felt bonded to her, something that couldn't happen to Kimura.

That was the main reason she'd refused to act as X-23's "mother figure" that the psychologists suggested. She herself had suggested Sarah Kinney due to her being the weapon's biological progenitor. Kimura had undergone months of therapy, which she hated, and brain re-wirings, which she hated more, to undermine the natural maternal bond she had with X-23.

The true test came when Kimura was assigned as X-23's handler in which she sadistically beat and punished the weapon. However, many people said, behind their hands, of course, that Kimura was so cruel to X-23 because she was trying to convince herself that she had no love for the little girl. She had busted more than a few heads for that.

"I hate her," muttered Kimura, "if I had my choice, I'd have killed her years ago."

But somewhere in her mind she knew that wasn't true. She had tried to kill X-23 many times, but somehow, someway, the girl would ease her way into her heart, making it impossible to give the final blow. In her eyes, Kimura saw all that she had been; an innocent child that didn't deserve to be abused.

"Stop it!" she hissed at herself as she walked into the command center. She looked at their captive who had a sheen of perspiration on his forehead.

"Hello, Kimura, the subject has been very stubborn in his attempts to avoid collection today," said a female doctor holding a clipboard. She had blonde hair and blue eyes with a sweet disposition. She reminded Kimura of Rachel Sutter before X-23 had killed her. It was the one time she hadn't punished X-23 for incompetence. She'd always hated Rachel and didn't really give a damn if Martin or Henry died as long as the blonde bimbo was dead.

"Have we gotten a viable sample yet?" she asked. The blonde woman shifted uncomfortably before answering.

"No, ma'am," She looked at the floor as Kimura turned to her. Her outward appearance was calm, but inside she was in a rage. How long could it take to get a viable genetic sample from someone who was bound and gagged?

"Dr… Guzman is it?" she asked sweetly, and the blonde woman nodded "How important would you say you are to the project's success."

"Well, ma'am, I'm just an information analyst. I don't do much more than state the scientific obvious." She smiled until she felt Kimura's fingers wrap around her throat.

"Too bad for you," said Kimura as she snapped Dr. Guzman's neck and let her body slide to the floor.

"You do realize that killing off the people restraining me means that your further away to a solution of the un-stabilizing genetic samples, correct?" said the captive in a bored voice. The raven-haired woman just glared at him

"You know, that's tough talk for a man who's chained up," she growled with her hands on her hips. The captive chuckled.

"I can talk that way because I know that I will be released," he said smiling with his green eyes flashing. "Neither my brother nor my daughter will stand for me disappearing off the radar for too long. _When _I escape, I will be sure to burn my name on your heart. What do you say to that my dear depressing captor?"

Kimura smiled. She had no doubt that the man spoke the truth about her. He would kill her slowly and painfully if he ever got free. She caressed his face mockingly before turning away from him.

"I'm sure that you will," she said turning back to her prisoner, giving him a sideways smile "See you tomorrow… Loki."


End file.
